can belto school of singing

Dear Kay,
An interesting post from Karie Bookish: "On Devaluating Hand-knitting." Perennially difficult subject: getting paid fairly for handknitting. Can anybody think of a way to improve this age-old problem?
I've been motoring away on a cowl that threatens to become a piece of furniture. It's the Pine Bough Cowl by Dianna-Potter-now-Dianna-Walla. It's stranded, knit in the round, to be the sort of cowl you would want to wear when you're shy a malamute and you've got 300 miles of Iditarod ahead of you.
If you have a yen to try Fair Isle, this is an absolute winner. Low stakes: the floats never see the light of day, and it goes on long enough that you can get your Fair Isle sea legs under you. You never have to swap out colors, but the pattern is pretty, even in two colors. I am always on the prowl for the modern-looking Fair Isle.
I haven't knit with the specified yarn, Kenzie by Hikoo, but it sounds drapier than the stashy Cascade 220 I'm using, and I think this pattern would benefit from a drapey yarn.
I have the most colossal startitis right now. How's that gift-knitting coming along?
Love,
Ann
PS Re the deep controversy of Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp . . . In the interest of keeping an open mind, I will watch this Sound of Music Live on December 5, and we'll do a side-by-side comparison of "Something Good." That's the acid test: "Something Good" is basically a sigh of a song, and I've never heard Carrie Underwood sing at less than 120 decibels. If she pulls that off, I'll eat my cowl.